Live Updates: Hamas delegation heads to Cairo for truce talks

Saturday, May 4, 2024

06:48 GMT — Hamas delegation heads to Cairo for truce talks

Hamas has said its delegation was heading to Cairo to resume Gaza truce talks, as the United Nations warned that Israel's threatened assault on the city of Rafah could produce a "bloodbath".

Foreign mediators have been waiting for the Palestinian resistance group to respond to a proposal to halt fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also reiterated Washington's objections to the long-threatened Rafah offensive, saying Israel has not presented a plan to protect the civilians sheltering there.

05:52 GMT — Israel briefed US on potential Rafah operation: sources

Israel this week briefed Biden administration officials on a potential operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah according to US officials familiar with the talks.

The officials, who were not authorised to comment publicly and requested anonymity to speak about the sensitive exchange, said that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the US administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in Rafah would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to carry out a military operation in Rafah despite warnings from President Joe Biden and other Western officials that doing so would result in more civilian deaths and worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis.

04:45 GMT — Democratic lawmakers tell Biden evidence shows Israel is curbing Gaza aid

Scores of politicians from US President Joe Biden's Democratic Party have told him that they believe there is sufficient evidence to show that Israel has violated US law by restricting humanitarian aid flows into besieged Gaza.

A letter to Biden signed by 86 House of Representatives Democrats said Israel's aid restrictions "call into question" its assurances that it was complying with a US Foreign Assistance Act provision requiring recipients of US-funded arms to uphold international humanitarian law and allow free flows of US assistance.

The lawmakers said the Israeli government had resisted repeated US requests to open enough sea and land routes for aid to Gaza and cited reports that it failed to allow in enough food to avert famine caused by Israeli siege and invasion, enforced "arbitrary restrictions" on aid and imposed an inspection system that impeded supplies.

04:30 GMT — Gaza's north under 'full-blown famine' as Israeli siege persists

The head of the UN World Food Program, Cindy McCain, has said northern besieged Gaza is experiencing "full-blown famine", supporting the views of many Palestinians and campaigners who have been for months saying Gaza is witnessing Israel-caused starvation.

Speaking to NBC News at the McCain Institute's Sedona Forum in Arizona, McCain pressed for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and access to humanitarian aid because "there is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it's moving its way south."

The UN and others have said the blockaded Palestinian territory is on the brink of famine, and the comments from the head of the agency that distributes food assistance go further than others.

04:20 GMT — Illegal Israeli settlers vandalise aid convoy in occupied West Bank

The United Nations reports that a UN convoy carrying humanitarian aid from Jordan to besieged Gaza had "a limited amount of goods" vandalised by Israeli civilians when it went through the West Bank.

It was also rerouted by armed men when it entered besieged Gaza to the wrong UN facility.

"All of the goods have been subsequently accounted for and are being distributed by the UN," UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said.

03:36 GMT — Israel seeks to reduce economic ties between occupied West Bank and Türkiye

Israel said it will seek to reduce economic ties between Türkiye and the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza in retaliation for Türkiye's trade ban with Israel over the latters carnage in besieged Gaza.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it would take "action to minimise all economic ties between Türkiye and the Palestinian Authority and Gaza."

03:10 GMT — WHO warns Rafah invasion would weaken 'already broken health system'

The World Health Organization has expressed concerns about Israel's planned invasion of besieged Gaza's southern city of Rafah, saying it would "exacerbate overcrowding, further limiting access to food, water, health and sanitation services, leading to increased disease outbreaks, worsening levels of hunger, and additional loss of lives."

"As part of contingency efforts, WHO and partners are urgently working to restore, and resuscitate health services, including through the expansion of services and pre-positioning of supplies, but the broken health system would not be able to cope with a surge in casualties and deaths that a Rafah incursion would cause," WHO said in its report.

02:30 GMT — Encampment set up at University College London campus

Joining several other university campuses across the Western world, University College London [UCL] students also set up an encampment in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Roughly a dozen tents have been pitched outside the main building in Bloomsbury, where entry has been restricted as only students are allowed to enter the campus.

The action by students at UCL is meant to call on their school's administration to divest from Israeli "war crimes" in Gaza with a pledge to rebuild universities in Gaza.

For our live updates from Friday, May 3, click here.